Arena Mode

Buckdida

L1: Registered
Aug 9, 2008
9
0
No doubt you've already seen this... Heavy update part 5!

Arena Mode

New game mode, and more importantly, new enviornment! It also seems there's a way to limit spawns for this mode.

Arena seems like a team deathmatch/koth/survival type of game.

I see some interesting gametypes and maps spawning from this...
 

What Is Schwa

L6: Sharp Member
Jan 13, 2008
375
445
I take it no-one at Valve has ever tried to find a vanilla server.

Really? A new game-mode that players have to sit out the entire remainder of the round? The community will embrace this for certain!
 

YM

LVL100 YM
aa
Dec 5, 2007
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I've got the first screeny of lumberyard as my desktop :D
I'm loving the new assests but I'll wait untill I've played on the arena maps a few times with less than 3 heavys per team before I make a decision on wether I like it or not
 

TheDarkerSideofYourShadow

L10: Glamorous Member
Apr 12, 2008
792
286
Oh, and maybe with this new environment, Necro can update his pl map to fit the TF2 theme. (whatever happened to that guy anyways?)
 

00000000000000000000000

L4: Comfortable Member
Jul 9, 2008
175
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Everyone scared him off by saying his map looked bad with hl2 textures (That he changed to fit the TF2 theme btw :mad:) Eh this is a pretty cool gamemode, but there will be a lot of heavy's like Youme said, and pyro's will be overpowered. But I'm really looking forward to badwater more than anything.
 

Ida

deer
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Jan 6, 2008
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I think Arena looks far better than I thought it would. I thought Valve would screw up majorly and just make some crappy deathmatch, but fortunately they're trying a bit harder.

I'm definitely making an Arena map as my next one of this mode turns out to be fun. And I can't wait to try out some of the Lumbermill textures and models (that ground has got to be new, right?) as well, especially that 2D skybox texture.
 
Feb 14, 2008
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I <3 The new rock models they're adding :D

They look awesome :D
 

Bonafide

L6: Sharp Member
Mar 18, 2008
313
25
Team deathmatch with 1 life and a CP. This will not go down good with the community.

Vanilla servers with absolutely normal spawn times are like gold dust. Most are instant spawn or have modified it slightly to knock 10 seconds or so off the respawn timer. I cant see most of the community wanting to sit out 2to5 minutes if they get killed early.

(I do personally think its good game mode though)
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
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Indeed, if most people can't be arsed to sit out 10 seconds, why would they sit out the rest of an entire game? I hope it works out better than what it seems though.
 

Ida

deer
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Jan 6, 2008
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The reason we sit and wait for ages during Sudden Death is always because people camp. There is no reason to camp here because after 60 seconds (and since you only get one life, most people will be careful enough to live that long), a Control Point opens, and you pretty much have to fight over that. With quick kills and one life, capping it should be no problem after one tiny brawl. Think about it - would this take a long time? No, not at all. And really, you have the spectator camera, why don't you go ahead and spectate for the remaining ~30 seconds and see if your team can win or not? I mean, that should be entertaining enough to make the "respawn" time worth it.

EDIT: And the reason people don't like waiting 10 seconds to respawn is probably because they know that they actually can help their team in a short while, they just have to get out there again ASAP. But in the Arena mode, they don't have the pressure of knowing that they can help their team in a few seconds, making the wait much less stressfull.

As we all know, people love to hate great games, so yeah, I kind of agree that this won't be liked so much by the public. However, I believe that most sensible players should understand after some tries that this could work and that it could be a lot of fun.

I'm not saying that I KNOW it will be like this, though, I just don't think it'll be a problem.
 
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Ida

deer
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Jan 6, 2008
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In sudden death people can still capture points/flags. there's actually little difference.

In Sudden Death they can cap, sure. But they also have to defend, which leads to turtling, which leads to a painfully slow match. In Arena everyone will be offensive all the time, at least when capping the point, so there's absolutely no reason to turtle, and therefore the match will be over much quicker as well.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
5,441
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I suppose with a single point to capture there is less space for a stale mate sudden death due to someone camping in safety. I only say this because i've never experienced a sudden death where someone camped it out to the end, other than on 2fort.

But that's just something that happens in the servers i play on.. i understand people play differently on other servers, it's quite surprising the tactics people deploy as per server.
 

trainRiderJ

L5: Dapper Member
Mar 14, 2008
203
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Have you guys ever played ctf_steamroll? It's a lot of fun and rounds never last longer than a minute or two. It works under the exact same premise as arena mode except there's flags instead of a control point to break any fail-mating.

Also, I don't think these maps are going to have a layout that's very conducive to stalemates. Where would you camp at the middle point of badlands, for instance? I'm not expecting maps similar to the various hydro stages; more similar to the middle points of well/granary/badlands.
 

Ida

deer
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Jan 6, 2008
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Yeah, I've played Steamrolled. It's an awfully boring map, since it's pretty much just some red/blue colored blocks and provides no fun gameplay, but that's beside the point - the fact that it never takes long for a round to end is what makes the idea great, and it will also make Valve's Arena mode great. Hopefully.
 

Shmitz

Old Hat
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Nov 12, 2007
1,128
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Well I've spent some time on all the maps except badlands. Playing as engineer, at least 90% of my time was spent very frustrated and angry as I ineffectually attempted to build sentries in locations that would provide some area control or dispensers to help my team stay alive. I tried a lot of different spots on all the maps I played on, with different strategies of building and moving. Most of the time I died or my buildings quickly got destroyed before they could provide any sort of tactical advantage for my team.

I am forced to conclude that arena mode is broken, because it does not incorporate every class into the gameplay. The engineer is almost completely useless. In short, arena mode is not Team Fortress. It is something less.
 

Snipergen

L13: Stunning Member
Nov 16, 2007
1,051
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Our duty to prove arena mode is an interesting gametype and provide a tactical map for it.

I need to play it more to see what is wrong, but I agree, something IS wrong.